Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will sign a deal to open a factory in Brazil before Christmas, according to the car maker’s chief executive Ralph Speth.

Mr Speth has confirmed plans for what would be JLR’s fourth overseas plant.

The company, which builds the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander 2 at Halewood on Merseyside, already has plans to open assembly facilities in China, India and Saudi Arabia.

The reported £100m investment in Brazil is part of a wider strategy to diversify the Indian owned car maker’s sales and production from its traditional markets in the US and Europe to the fast growing emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

While the plants in India and China will make Range Rover Evoques, it is not yet clear what models will be built in Brazil.

The South American country, now the world’s fourth largest economy, offers huge potential for car sales.

An assembly base there will also help overcome the country’s high import tariffs.

Mr Speth, who is a former plant director at Halewood, was quoted as saying: “We expect the Brazil decision before Christmas”

JLR is now Britain’s biggest exporter of manufactured goods, generating export revenues of £11bn a year.

The company employs 4,500 staff at Halewood on three shifts a day.

Halewood has recently been playing host to 50 Chinese workers who have been training at the plant ahead of the opening of the company’s new factory in China.

The 50 workers are now set to return to China where they will begin passing on their newly learned skills to 1,000 new recruits for the factory near Shanghai.

JLR, which is part of Mumbai stockmarket listed Tata Motors, is expected to launch 40 new models over the next five years at a cost of £10bn as it seeks to improve its market share around the world and compete more aggressively with the likes of BMW.